On the Möbius function in all short intervals (Q6160166)

In the paper under review, the authors develop a method to study the average behaviour of the Möbius function \(\mu(n)\) in the short intervals of the form \((x,x+H]\) with \(H\geq x^\theta\) for \(\theta>0.55\). Their method works as well for the function \(N_0(x)\), counting the number of integers \(\leq x\) that can be written as the sum of squares of two integers, the \(k\)-fold divisor function \(\tau_k(n)\), and for the function \(E_2(x)\), which denotes the number of integers \(\leq x\) that can be written as the product of two distinct primes. More precisely, letting \(\theta>0.55\) and \(\varepsilon>0\) fixed, \(x\) large enough and \(H\geq x^\theta\), they prove that \[ \sum_{x<n\leq x+H}\mu(n)=O\left(\frac{H}{(\log x)^{1/3-\varepsilon}}\right), \] and \[ N_0(x+H)-N_0(x)=(C+O((\log x)^{-1/6+\varepsilon}))\frac{H}{(\log x)^{1/2}}, \] where \(C=2^{-1/2}\prod(1-p^{-2})^{-1/2}\) is the Landau-Ramanujan constant, with the product running over primes \(p\equiv 3\) modulo \(4\). Also, they prove that \[ \sum_{x<n\leq x+H}\tau_k(n)=P_{k-1}(\log x)H+O\left(H(\log x)^{(2/3+\varepsilon)k-1}\right) \] where \(P_{k-1}\) is a polynomial of degree \(k-1\), when \(k\) is an integer, and for non-integer values of \(k\) (including complex values), the function \(P_{k-1}(\log x)\) will not be a polynomial anymore. Moreover, the authors show that \[ E_2(x+H)-E_2(x)=H\,\frac{\log\log x}{\log x}+O\left(H\,\frac{\log\log\log x}{\log x}\right). \] Their method can also be used for twisted sums over \(\mu(n)e(\alpha n)\) with \(e(t)=\exp(2\pi i t)\), for which, letting \(\theta>0.6\) and \(\varepsilon>0\) fixed, \(x\) large enough and \(H\geq x^\theta\), they prove that uniformly for \(\alpha\in\mathbb{R}\), \[ \sum_{x<n\leq x+H}\mu(n)e(\alpha n)=O\left(\frac{H}{(\log x)^{1/3-\varepsilon}}\right). \]